The Other Kiss
by karly05
Summary: Phineas is finally ready to act on his feelings for Isabella.  It's Phinabella With a Purpose.  If you're reading my Ferbnessa stories, please read this, too, as it factors into Things to Come  and makes a brief reference back to "Christmas Song" .


The Other Kiss

It was a hot morning near the end of summer when Phineas Flynn set out on the longest walk of his life. It was a walk he had taken hundreds of times before in his now-fourteen years, but today, it was different.

The past two weeks had been the most miserable two weeks he could remember. Initially, he would start the day with an idea, and Ferb would knock out the blueprints for it, but somehow, by lunchtime, Phineas would have lost interest in the project and gone searching in vain for something else to engage his mind. After a few days of this, the ideas, themselves, were eluding him. Ferb came up with a couple, and they weren't bad ones; Mom probably would have appreciated the self-cleaning house, and the anti-gravity bookcase with fiber-magnetic shelves for ceiling-based storage in tight spaces had a lot of potential, but Phineas simply couldn't make himself get excited about them. He had dug out his old notebooks of their previous plans and projects for inspiration, but the only interesting result of this was the discovery of some nearly-forgotten sketches from the summer he had turned ten.

"Hey, Ferb," he had remarked to his brother, showing him what he had found, "remember this? The plans for the Badminton Platypult. Why didn't we ever build this?"

Ferb's only answer had been a shrug. Phineas had considered tackling the project now, but his heart simply wasn't in it. What had happened to him? What had changed in those two weeks to make him feel so lost and listless? He could think of only one thing: Isabella was away at camp.

But, why should that make a difference? For as long as he had known her, Isabella had gone away to Fireside Girls Camp for a couple of weeks every summer. Yeah, he had always kind of missed having her around to help with their creations, but her absence had never hit him as hard as it had this year. And then, last night, he had done something crazy – completely mental, as Ferb would have said. Up in his room, after dinner, Phineas had heard a motor in the street and looked out the window to see the Garcia-Shapiros' car pulling into their driveway. Isabella was home! Phineas had leapt from the bed, dashed down the stairs, and sprinted across the street. The black-haired girl had been hoisting her duffle bag out of the trunk when he had barreled into her, flinging both arms around her and spinning her in a circle. "Am I glad to see you!"

Isabella had given a surprised little laugh and said, "I missed you, too, Phineas," hugging him back. Even when his feet stopped, his head had continued spinning, as he held her tight. She smelled like sunblock and bug spray and cotton dried in the fresh air, and he could feel her soft curves – Isabella had curves? When had that happened? – pressing against him, and the world was once again a remarkable place of boundless possibilities. She had ended the hug then, and picked up her bag. Still beaming, she had said, "Good night, Phineas; see you tomorrow!" and vanished inside.

He had breathed out a huge, happy sigh as the weight of those miserable days lifted from his shoulders, and he had returned to his own house, whistling all the way. Isabella was home.

And now it was tomorrow.

And Phineas Flynn had thought of nothing else all night but _her_.

And that was why he was now making the long, long, anxious walk across the street to her house. He wasn't quite certain what he was going to do when he got there, but he knew he had to do something. If Ferb had known his thoughts, his advice would have been, "Just kiss her!" Heh, right, thought Phineas; his brother had tried that tactic on Vanessa after last December's Christmas party, and it hadn't turned out so well for him. Oh, Ferb still insisted that it had worked – at least, as well as could be expected. He was convinced that Vanessa had liked it, he swore that he had felt her dig her fingers into his shoulders and nearly, almost, practically start to kiss him back, and after all, it wasn't as if she had slapped him, or – his biggest fear – laughed at him. The morning after the party, Ferb had begun marking off the days until his sixteenth birthday, certain that all he had to do was give Vanessa some space and wait her out and his dreams of romance with her would somehow magically come true. Reflecting on this, Phineas shook his head in disbelief. As level-headed and focused as Ferb usually was, he was awfully delusional when it came to Vanessa. Phineas only hoped he wasn't kidding himself about how Isabella was going to react to – whatever it was that he was going to do or say when he saw her in a minute.

Now, Phineas stood on the doorstep of the house across the way, staring at the doorbell, and muttering to himself. "Hi, Mrs Garcia-Shapiro, is Isabella… Hello, Mrs. Garpiro-Sharciro, may I speak to… no, Good Morning, Mrs. Shargaro-Garsh… Errrgh!" With a deep breath, he jabbed a finger at the button, and listened as the bell echoed inside. He heard footsteps, and the click of the door handle. "Hi, Mrs. Garci-Isabella?" He was surprised when the girl, herself, opened the door. He hadn't planned on this.

"Hi, Phineas," she beamed at him. "What'cha doin'?"

Phineas's brain was washed away in a flash flood of thoughts:_ I don't know what I'm doing! I don't know what I've been doing! Always getting wrapped up in these silly projects I don't care about – It's YOU I care about, Isabella!_ No, no, no, all wrong – Phineas wrestled his thoughts into submission. He couldn't say that to her, she would think it was stupid and laugh in his face. And he did still care about his projects, it was just that, right now, he cared about her a little bit more. So, instead, he just said, "Ummm…"

"Are you building something?" she suggested helpfully, craning her neck to look toward his back yard.

"No, not really," he admitted. "Maybe later."

"Cool. Can I come over and help?" She was still smiling, but looked a little confused by him.

"Well, yeah," Phineas replied, then cringed at the 'uh, durrr,' tone he was afraid had snuck into his voice; after all, she always came over and helped, that hadn't changed – wouldn't change – he hoped. "Isabella, I came over to tell you…" _No, still not right!_ "I mean, I wanted to see you…" _No, no, no!_

"Yes, Phineas?"

She really was trying to throw him a life preserver and fish him out of this mess, he noted gratefully. Her eyes were glowing, and she was smiling, and practically bouncing on her toes, and Phineas realized, she _knew. _She knew what he was doing on her doorstep – had probably known since that hug yesterday – and it occurred to him that he had been overthinking this. Maybe Ferb was right. In one, rash, headlong move, Phineas laid hold of Isabella by the arms, pulled her close, and planted his lips on hers.

One muffled yelp of surprise came out of her as they made contact, then there was a happy little whimper as she returned the kiss. Phineas held tight to her, not knowing what else to do but press his lips against hers and bask in all the wonderfulness of her. She tasted like strawberries and pancakes, and when he felt her easing back from him to renew the contact at a slightly different angle, suddenly it all made sense. A real kiss wasn't just a steady pressure, it was a fluctuating rhythm of advance and retreat, an experiment in figuring out the harmony between a boy and a girl and a simple point of union… Phineas was aware of Isabella's arms around his neck, as he managed to get his around her waist. All the sensations he remembered from yesterday's hug were there – well, except now she smelled like botanical soap and freshly-washed hair – and all the feelings for her piling up inside of him only grew clearer and stronger with the added thrill of the kiss. The kiss… the most incredible, amazing discovery ever made, completely unlike any sensation he had ever felt in his life… Wait – no – that wasn't true. Something wasn't right here. Phineas pulled back from Isabella, who was panting softly, and gazing at him through half-closed eyes.

"Isabella," he blurted, and the sound of her name tumbled him into a vortex of confusion. It wasn't déjà vu. This – standing on her porch, holding her in his arms, birds chirping, sun warming them, this was all fresh and new, but the _kiss_… Some fleeting shadow rushed past a dark corner of his mind. "Isabella!" he exclaimed abruptly. "Do that again!"

"Why, Phineas Flynn," she cooed, batting her eyes at him.

"No, no," he scrambled to untangle himself from her and took a step back. He was chasing that mental shadow as it flickered in and out of sight. "You have to start it."

She giggled and turned a charming tint of pink as she softly said, "Okay," and slowly slid her hands over his shoulders.

"No, not like that." Under the influence of a four-alarm mental alert, his brain-to-mouth filter had shut down and his thoughts came tumbling out as they formed. "That's not right."

Isabella looked slightly peeved as her brow furrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Grab my arms, like I did to you; just grab me and kiss me!"

Gawking at him with wide eyes, she hesitated.

Almost frantic, Phineas begged, "Just do it!"

Before the words were out of his mouth, Isabella was gripping his arms, dragging him toward her, and then her mouth was planted on his… Phineas's head was spinning, Isabella was kissing him, then a searing flash of light scorched through him. He tore his lips from hers and stood facing her for a moment, both of them breathing heavily, then he said, "Again!"

There was an odd look on her face as their lips met this time, excited, alarmed, he wasn't quite sure, but his eyes were open for the kiss and – that was it! He wasn't crazy, she had kissed him before! His eyes had been open for that one, as well; she had grabbed him just like this, taking him completely by surprise. There had been people all around them, Ferb, and Candace… And that kid, Carl, who had helped them with the Anti-Gravity Fun Launcher, and Carl's Dad, and… and…

Phineas stepped back, stunned, and said – almost whispered – "Perry."

Isabella reached out and laid a hand on his cheek. "Phineas," she asked, with a worried look, "are you all right?"

He wasn't looking at Isabella now, he was lost in a maze of memories, jumbled and incomplete, but one stood out, and he said, in a hushed voice, "Perry was there."

Gently, she put her arms around him, and helped him to sit down on the edge of the stoop. "Perry was where?" she coaxed.

He didn't answer the question, he was too busy sweeping up the fragments of a day long lost. The day they had built the Platypult. The day they had met Doctor D and gone into another dimension and nearly gotten themselves killed and then saved the entire Tri-State Area with all the things they had invented over that glorious summer. The day they had discovered that their Pet Platypus Who Didn't Do Much was a Secret Agent.

Something else had happened that day, something Big and Life-Changing, the something that had brought everything else back to him. Now he looked at Isabella, sitting next to him, and said, "You kissed me."

"Um, yeah, like three times," she pointed out, giggling a bit, but looking at him uneasily.

"No, not today, _that_ day," he corrected. Enough of it was making sense now, he could try to explain. "The summer when we were ten… Ferb and I kept notes on everything we did, but there was one day we never could remember. It was the day we built the Badminton Platypult."

"What Badminton Platypult?" she questioned, puzzled.

"See?" Phineas exclaimed triumphantly. "We ended up having this huge, amazing adventure that day, but Carl's Dad had to erase our memories of it, or-" The agony he had felt at the prospect then washed over him again as he said, softly, "Or we were going to lose Perry."

Isabella took his hand and said, "Wow, I think all that kissing really got to you."

"No." The brain-to-mouth filter had not fully re-engaged. "It's not that. Isabella," he laced his fingers with hers and gazed deep into her eyes, "can you keep a secret?" When she nodded, he emphasized, "I'm serious. If I tell you this, you have to swear not to tell anyone. Something terrible could happen if they found out I remembered."

"Phineas, you can trust me with anything, you know that," she promised. She raised her free hand to her brow and pledged, "Fireside Girls' Honor."

Phineas looked at her hand in his for a moment as he collected his thoughts. Facing her, he fixed his eyes on hers and said, in a hushed voice, "Perry's a Secret Agent. We weren't supposed to know, but we found out that day. That's why Carl's Dad had to wipe our memories – I don't think he's really Carl's Dad, but I can't remember his name – Major Monotone, or something?" Phineas pondered. "He's Perry's Boss."

Isabella was listening to him, wide-eyed, but to his surprise, she seemed to believe him. That is, until he added: "Something else happened that day. Just before they erased our memories – you kissed me."

"Phineas Flynn!" she huffed, letting go of him. "Now that's just silly! I would never do that in a million years!"

He was stunned by this outburst. "But – but, I thought you liked me."

"A lady never initiates the first kiss," Isabella informed him haughtily.

Phineas couldn't believe this nonsense. "Wow, you want to talk about silly! It's the twenty-first century, Isabella; girls can do anything boys can do. Well, within biological limitations, I mean." He considered her words for a minute, though, and said, "Maybe that's why you kissed me that day. Because you knew I would never remember that you did it first."

Isabella gave him a sidelong glance before she said, "Well, if I _had_ done it – and I still don't believe I did – that would make sense."

They were both quiet for a minute, while Phineas contemplated his next step. "I have to tell Ferb. About Perry," he clarified. "And the memory wipe. I hope he doesn't think I'm _completely mental_." He mimicked his brother's accent. Reaching out, he took Isabella's hand again and said, "Come with me?"

"Sure," she nodded, and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

They got up from the stoop and headed across the street, still holding hands. "So, Isabella," Phineas gulped, "does all this kissing mean that we're, like, boyfriend and girlfriend now?"

"I don't know, Phineas," she replied, with a teasing look. "That's up to you."

He sighed a little, but he was grinning when he said, "Is that another one of those 'girls can't go first' things?"

"You catch on quick."

"Okay," he chuckled, and said, with a lump in his throat, "Isabella – can we be, like, boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Isabella smiled. "Yes, Phineas. Yes, we can."

THE END

**A/N – I came away from ATSD with two story ideas: One became "Connecting the Dots," Ferb's reaction to discovering Perry's secret. The other was the premise that, at some point in the future, when Isabella and Phineas had their "first kiss," it would trigger his repressed memories of That Day. I hope it works decently as Phinabella, but unlocking those memories is the bigger purpose of this story. Characters all belong to Povenmire and Marsh.**

**If you haven't been reading my Ferbnessa stories, the business of Ferb kissing Vanessa relates to my story, "Christmas Song."**


End file.
